Bengaluru: Four men, who had robbed a middleman working for a hawala racket of Rs 1.35 crore, have been arrested by the Kalasipalya police. Rs 51 lakh has been recovered from the accused, while eight more accused are still absconding.
The arrested have been identified as Mohammed Basheer, 29, George P.S., 40, Vivek P.K. alias Susu and Davis V.V., 41. All the four hail from Kerala.
On January 9 evening, Lateef, 29, who is from Palakkad in Kerala, had approached the Kalasipalya police and complained that he was robbed of Rs 1.35 crore cash by a gang. Lateef, initially, had not told the police on how he got the money, but had later revealed that he worked for a hawala operator in Kerala and the robbed cash was meant for hawala transactions. He told the police that he had kept Rs 50 lakh at Paradise Lodge on Kalasipalya Main Road, where he was staying and had gone out to collect another ' 85 lakh.
“When he was returning to his room, a gang of men had threatened him and robbed him of Rs 85 lakh. They also asked him to take them to the lodge as they were observing his movements since morning and knew that he had kept cash in the room. Without any resistance, Lateef had taken two of them to his room, who robbed the money and left. Later, Lateef filed the complaint,” the police said.
The police gathered information on those who worked for the racket and those who knew Lateef was collecting money that day.
As per his statement, accused Basheer had collected Rs 50 lakh from different sources and given it to him.
“Basheer was picked up for questioning, but he claimed innocence. He was kept under watch and it was revealed that he was in contact with a notorious gang of robbers in Kerala. When he was again picked up and grilled, he told us that he had set up the robbery gang and passed on information about Lateef’s movements. Based on his information, three others were arrested. We are trying to trace the other eight accused who are absconding,” the police said.
Lateef to be asked to produce documents
Police sources said that as their prime focus was to detect the robbery case, they are not investigating the source of money. “After the robbery case is detected completely, Lateef will be asked to produce documents related to the money. If he cannot produce the documents, he will be booked for having unaccountable cash. Investigations so far have revealed that the gang was collecting money from various businessmen in the city and was taking it to Kerala, from where it reached other states,” an official said.
